Alpine announce key appointment to oversee F1 team following restructure

Alpine have promoted Bruno Famin to vice president of their Motorsports division, which will make him oversee the Formula 1 team and other motorsport operations under the Alpine brand.

The announcement comes as Alpine have had a management restructure under CEO Laurent Rossi, with Famin set to report directly into Rossi as a go-between from team principal Otmar Szafnauer.

Famin will not just manage the Formula 1 team, he will also oversee Alpine’s efforts in endurance racing, their Dakar Rally project, Rally-Raid and more as part of his new role, including overseeing Alpine’s Academy drivers.

Bruno Famin promoted as part of Alpine restructure

Famin was previously executive director of Alpine’s power unit division at Viry-Châtillon, having joined the team in 2022 after three years as director of operations at the FIA, and he will maintain his role in heading up their power unit factory alongside this appointment.

This structural change at Alpine will mean that Szafnauer will now report to Famin on a daily basis at the team, rather than directly to Rossi as CEO, which will now fall to Famin to do.

The team say this move is a part of its plans to “simplify” its processes under Rossi as chief executive, with two further vice presidents having been nominated earlier this year: Philippe Krief, to oversee engineering and product performance, and Antonio Labate to be responsible for sales, marketing and customer experience.

Famin was picked for his role with his decades of experience in motorsport, having started working with Peugeot in 1989 on projects like the 905 Spider and the 106 GRA.

He worked his way up to become technical director at Peugeot by 2005 and was made director in 2012, playing a big part in the team’s Le Mans-winning 908 project.

Alpine said in a statement announcing his appointment: “Bruno Famin will be in position to leverage his extensive experience in motorsports, built on his unique track record of victories, including several titles in Le Mans and Dakar.

“He will also contribute his acknowledged engineering know-how, which helped re-establish Alpine’s F1 PU as a credible reference in the paddock, as well as his extensive experience in Motorsports regulations, having long served as a well-respected FIA executive.”

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On track, Alpine came away from Silverstone with their second double retirement of the season after a hydraulic leak caused Esteban Ocon to DNF early on, before a collision between Pierre Gasly and Lance Stroll ended their afternoon altogether.

It ended up being a double blow for the team as they lost P5 in the Constructors’ standings to McLaren, whose second and fourth-placed finishes for Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri saw them leapfrog the French manufacturer in the championship with a 30-point haul from the British Grand Prix.

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